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Bigbro wrote- "We-hell, any opinions on this theory? If it existed, why was there no mention or photograph of it? And what was in the cauldron?
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You have blueprints that show the altar. I would say, even with no photos, that this along with the resemblance to the matchbook art work etc. is proof enough that the alter/cauldron existed. If this was a promotional artist rendering I would say no not enough proof.

There usually is several blue prints of the same area for different reasons. One is made for the HVAC Electrical only and one just for the plumber. If you have these prints then they would show if the cauldron was wired for lights, gas jets beneath lava rocks for fire or plumbed for a water feature.

Anyone have a idea on what a single tiki might go for??? I have a local shop that has a single eater for sale. I need to go back and see if it has turn marks or not but it looks like it could be old. aprox. 14-16" high. any thoughts?

at least 2ft tall and Heavy....I think it was priced somewhere between $600-$800... I wanted to lift it up a bit to check for lathe chuck marks but it was wedged in the corner Aloha, Freddie
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When we visited a few years ago, they had a terrific old 6' tall Ku (didn't even ask the price) and a maybe 1 1/2 ft Kava Kava man that I badly wanted to take home, but he had a very hefty price tag. The cannibal wasn't there then, but it's a beauty.

This is the sister store (wife's side), on the right of this shop, across the lane is the husbands side and the one with all the Tikis and Hawaiiana...a few nice gems but uniformly steep $$.... Freddie

This is a great find, Sabu! I have pondered over this image for many years, not because of its unusually realistic endowed-ness, but because it is a Cannibal carving in situ in a Tahitian marae!...at least that is what the caption to THIS photo...

... in Miroslav Stingl's 1985 book "Kunst der Suedsee" says. It was photographed (obviously a bit later than the postcard) at the Arahu Rahu marae in Tahiti, which was reconstructed in the mid-50s:

Since then, Tahitian processions and festivals have taken place at this marae every year:

But nowadays it is said to be a mostly tourist oriented performance place. The Tikis from the first renovation have since been replaced by spanking new ones:

..which in their design are actually closer to ancient Tahitian (and not Marquesan) carvings.

Nevertheless, if this marae's original reconstruction in the mid-century was done under the auspices of archeologists, would they have allowed tourist carvings on such an authentic site? The date of 1923 on Kate's Cannibal trio places the Cannibal design concept very close to a generation of Tiki carvers that still might have had carving tradition knowledge handed down to them from pre-contact generations.

Could it be possible that this carving ONLY survived in its tourist form, in the minds of old carvers, from before contact, because all its ancient examples had been destroyed? One can imagine that a "perverse" carving such as this would have been on top of the list of any missionaries determined to eradicate pagan imagery!

The one at Arahu Rahu is certainly a modern version :

..actually quite close to the one that Spence Weaver owned:

..but the Don the Beachcomber trio looks more blocky and primitive. Now anthropologists might argue that the linear thinking of the A-B-C sequence of Catcher-Eater-Full Belly is much more a Western way of thinking, but what about the Palau story boards? Why wouldn't Polynesians have done narrative sequences in carvings, then, to? And yes, ancestor carvings were mostly symbolic and sacred, but the Polynesians also did have an irreverent sense of humor. And last, perhaps just the Eater Cannibal existed as an ancient godhead, and the rest of the set was completed in tourist times by an inspired carver?

At this point, I doubt that the carver of that Tahitian marae cannibal is still alive, and unless a pre-contact Cannibal carving is discovered in some burial cave, my "missing link" theory will remain just that. But I like theories.